Ruling Biju Janata Dal’s Rudra Pratap Maharathy won the Pipili by-election, defeating BJP’s Ashrit Pattnayak by 20,916 votes in a straight fight. While Mr. Maharathy polled 96,972 votes, his nearest rival Mr. Pattnayak could bag 76,056 votes. The BJD candidate secured 53.6% of the votes polled leaving behind the BJP candidate at 42.04%. The success is certainly a morale boosting …